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Scholarly Resources
College-level research in sciences requires you to use scholarly sources that contain reliable information to help you develop experiments and analyze results. The easiest way to access scholarly sources is through publicly funded university libraries that often provide free walk-in access for public.
Examples of scholarly sources:
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Journal article (also peer-reviewed article or research article) - is a publication of original research in a scientific journal. It reports new facts and analysis.
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Review article (also journal review article) - is a publication that summarizes the current state of understanding on a topic based on the selection of previously published research articles. It is a survey of the field. It does not report new facts.
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Thesis (also dissertation or PhD thesis) - is a publication of detailed original research on a specific topic for the purpose of getting a scientific degree.
Primary & Secondary Sources
There are two major categories of scholarly sources: primary and secondary. Each type serves a specific purpose in your research.
Primary sources provide raw information and first-hand evidence. Examples include original research data, original journal articles and technical reports, interview transcripts, and works of art. A primary source gives you direct access to the subject of your research.
Secondary sources provide second-hand information and commentary from other researchers. Examples include review articles and academic books. A secondary source describes, interprets, and synthesizes primary sources.
Primary sources are more credible as evidence, but good research uses both primary and secondary sources.
Library Databases
To find scholarly sources, you can use library databases. A library database is an organized collection of electronic information that allows you to search for a particular topic, article, or book in a variety of ways (e.g., keyword, topic, author). Library databases vary in their specialties.
Multi-subject databases
Multi-subject database search across multiple subjects or disciplines at once and can be a good place to start if your research topic is general or interdisciplinary. Multi-subject databases are the best place to start if you are not sure which subject your research fits in. Examples of multi-subject databases include Dimensions Plus, Web of Science, and ProQuest.
Multi-subject databases Examples
Subject Databases
Subject databases focus on specific disciplines. Use them when you are researching a particular topic (for example, PubMed is for biomedical and health sciences literature) or when you are looking for the particular type of information (for example, Protein Data Bank (PDB) is a database of macromolecular structures).
Subject databases examples
Evaluating Sources
Finding the best article is an iterative process: you might have to go back one step and search 2 or 3 times before you find a relevant and useful article. Finally, to confirm that the found source is scholarly and trustworthy, follow the 5 W’s of information evaluation
Who are the authors of the source? Are they experts?
Who are the (acknowledged or self-proclaimed) experts in this particular field? Scholarly articles are written by scholars usually associated with academic institutions or research centers. The name of organization or the name of the corresponding author can provide a clue to whether the published research is relevant to your search and whether it has bias or point-of-view that might effect the information.
What is the purpose of the information sources?
Any new research is usually a continuation of ongoing research, either supporting or contradicting the known hypotheses. A discovery that is disconnected from current research literature and claims to be unique should raise a red flag. Conclusions shall be strongly supported by results. Information shall be complete and supported through the bibliography. It is useful to think why authors wrote this paper and how is it important to the field.
When did it originate and has it been updated?
A current scholarly article should contain current information reflecting all recent research on the topic. When referring to old literature sources, be aware that methods might be outdated and data may not be as precise, simply due to the progress that was made in data collection and instrumentation capabilities over years of research, especially if this is a very rapidly evolving field.
Where can you verify the information?
A scholarly article would critically assess the current knowledge in the field, would provide plenty of references to other scholarly articles, would present plenty of facts and supporting information to validate its research claims, and would relate its research to the previous research findings. Pay attention to institutional affiliations and funding sources. Research published by unfamiliar institutions and funded by for-profit organizations may be biased.
Why would you use this instead of another source?
All of the above considerations are important when selecting one paper over another. Other important factors are topic relevance and number of citations. For the latter, you may look at papers who cite the paper you found, with a larger number of citations being a positive sign. Be aware that review articles would usually have more citations than journal articles, as many researchers cite them to introduce the topic. The most recent papers, on the other hand, would often display no citations due to the short time interval since their publication.
Keep It Organized
Finding and organizing your research articles and notes is a key to a successful research paper. Use one of these strategies to help organize your information. Choose the strategy that works best for you!
1. To organize notes, consider the following tools:
Google Keep is a system of online sticky notes. These notes are shareable, searchable, and taggable. They integrate beautifully with google docs to help you organize your research and take notes.
Old fashioned index Cards are a favorite among many researchers. Make sure you have a system in place for how to organize the information on the cards as well as how to organize the cards themselves.
Trello online tool organizes your research into individual cards. You can provide notes, links to sources, and images within each expandable, electronic notecard.
2. To organize your research articles, consider a citation manager
Citation management software helps you to:
· Organize references, PDFs, and images;
· Take notes on references and PDFs;
· Share references and collaborate on projects with colleagues;
· Format bibliographies and in-text citations in hundreds of citations styles.
Here are some citation management software you can use:
Review this research guide on Citation Management and choose a citation management software that works for you.
Can I Google?
You may be familiar with Google Scholar as a resource for finding scholarly articles. Google Scholar is a good starting point to search for information, but it works privately with publishers to make materials available. This means you cannot rely on unbiased representation of scholarly works, and you will never obtain a comprehensive overview of scholarly materials on the topic by using only Google Scholar.
